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Buying a Full Appliance Package: How to Get a Whole Kitchen for the Price of One New Suite

There's a moment in every kitchen project where the appliance budget hits reality. You've picked the cabinets, you've priced the counters, and then you total up a fridge, a range, a dishwasher and an over-the-range microwave at big-box retail — and suddenly the number is bigger than the cabinetry.

Here's the good news: appliances are the one part of a kitchen where you can cut the cost roughly in half without cutting quality. Buying a full package of open-box and factory-refurbished units is how a lot of Ontario homeowners get a premium kitchen on a mid-range budget. But a package purchase is also the easiest place to make an expensive mistake. This guide walks you through it in the right order.

Step 1: Measure the openings before you shop anything

Not the old appliances — the openings. Cabinet cut-outs are what you have to live with, and they rarely match what the previous owner installed.

  • Fridge opening: width, height and depth. Standard cut-outs are usually 30", 33" or 36" wide. Leave about 1" of total clearance for airflow and door swing.
  • Range opening: almost always 30" for freestanding, but 24" for apartments and condos and 36" for higher-end kitchens.
  • Dishwasher opening: 24" is standard; 18" for compact kitchens.
  • Over-the-range microwave: matches your range width, and you need 30" of clearance from the cooktop surface to the bottom of the unit.

Write these four numbers down. Every product page on our site lists the model's real dimensions, so you can screen out anything that won't fit before you fall in love with it.

Step 2: Lock your fuel type early

This one is not negotiable after the fact. If you have a gas line at the range location, you can choose gas, electric or induction — but if you only have a 240V outlet, gas is off the table unless you're paying a licensed fitter to run a line. The same applies to your dryer.

Induction has become the quiet favourite for renovations: it's electric, so no gas line is needed, it boils water faster than gas, and it's dramatically easier to clean. The catch is that it needs magnetic cookware — hold a fridge magnet to your pan bottom, and if it sticks, you're fine.

Step 3: Decide how strict you want to be about finish

Here's where package buyers save the most money. Insisting that all four appliances come from the same brand and the same product line is the single most expensive decision you can make, because it means passing on every deal that doesn't match.

In practice, most stainless steel finishes from major brands sit within a shade of each other, and once appliances are separated by cabinetry — fridge on one wall, dishwasher beside the sink — nobody notices they're different badges. The finishes that genuinely need to match are the ones sitting side by side: your range and the microwave directly above it, or a washer and dryer pair.

Our advice: match your range and over-the-range microwave (same brand if you can, since the trim lines up), then shop the fridge and dishwasher purely on features and price. Black stainless and true black are the exceptions — those tones vary noticeably between brands, so keep those matched.

Step 4: Buy the condition grade that fits each appliance

Not every appliance in a package needs the same grade. Think about where each unit will actually sit:

  • Dishwasher and over-the-range microwave: almost fully hidden once installed. Open box – scratch & dent is the obvious call here; a mark on a panel you'll never see saves you real money.
  • Range: the front and cooktop are visible, but the sides are usually buried between cabinets — so a side scuff costs you nothing in appearance.
  • Fridge: the most visible appliance in the room. This is where it's worth spending up for a new-in-box or a very clean open-box unit.

Every listing on our site is graded honestly — NEW BOX, OPEN BOX – SCRATCH & DENT, or FACTORY REFURBISHED — and priced accordingly. All three are fully functional appliances; the difference is cosmetic history, not performance.

Step 5: Sequence your delivery around the renovation

Buy early, install late. Appliance inventory at a liquidation retailer is genuinely one-of-a-kind — when a specific open-box unit sells, that exact price is gone. If you wait until the cabinets are in, you're shopping from whatever happens to be on the floor that week.

The one thing to confirm before you buy is where you'll store the units in the meantime. A garage or basement is fine for a few weeks; just keep refrigerators upright and let them sit for a few hours before plugging in if they've been moved.

What a package actually saves

Run the math on a typical four-piece stainless kitchen. At big-box retail you're often looking at $2,500 for a French door fridge, $1,800 for a slide-in range, $1,100 for a quiet dishwasher and $500 for an over-the-range microwave — roughly $5,900 before tax and delivery.

The same four appliances, bought open box, routinely land in the $3,000–$3,600 range. That's not a small discount — it's a countertop upgrade, or the tile you thought you couldn't afford.

Ready to build your package?

Start with the piece that's hardest to fit — usually the fridge — and work outward from there:

Every unit is inspected before it ships, prices are in CAD, and you can order the whole kitchen online in one go. If you're not sure a particular model fits your opening, the dimensions are right there on the product page — measure twice, buy once, and put the difference into the rest of your renovation.

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